Back on track

After JT got over the whole idea that his partner 'ditched' him, he chose to work on a poster.  It was a process of elimination rather than a desire to create a poster, but that's ok.  I'm happy to report that he did a way better job on his body system poster than he did on his cell poster earlier in the year.  The cell poster was 36/46 (78%) and it was a struggle.  His body system poster was 91%!!!  He achieved this mark with a little bit of ab. ed. support and a bit of help from me organizing which components were important, but other than that, he did it on his own without repeated prompting!  To add to that, the students were expected to very briefly present their projects to the class.  Earlier in the week he told me there was no way he was going to present because it made him too nervous, but when it came time to present, he did it right away when I called his name! 

Back to square one?

So JT has been away all week until today.  He has come back to the middle of our final Science project on body systems.  Before he left he had partnered up with a peer who has now chosen a new partner because of the absences.  He was pretty upset about this.  He was completely back to his old self claiming he couldn't do it, couldn't find the answers, didn't know what method he wanted to use, etc.  He had a very negative attitude.  I sat with him and went over the information with him and we chose a poster.  I will have to update you on how the poster goes!

The rest of the class is working quite hard on their projects.  This year, I added the test to the list of options just like Pam did.  So far, only two of my students have chosen the test.  It could be out of laziness because they wasted the block today, so I told them they have to come in at lunch tomorrow.  Pam and I went through our outline to make the PLOs more evident so that they don't miss important information like they did last year.  We will have see how it all turns out!

On another note, I tried the window writers, graffiti, and chalkboard writing with my other classes and it was a hit! 

Results!

So, after doing the reflection activity to talk about the poem, I had them complete a worksheet about the metaphors found in the poem.  Based on what I remember from previous years, the results are way better than they usually are!  Not a single student failed!  The lowest mark was 4/8, which was JT's (although, I think that he would have done worse without the reflection activity), but most marks were 7 or 8 out of 8! Yay!

More success!

Last week I tried another new activity with my class.  I had them reflect on the poem from The Outsiders, but I did this by having 3 stations: window writers (my favorite!), graffiti, and chalkboard writing.  Everyone was extremely engaged!  They absolutely loved it!  It seemed that most of them understood the essence of the poem as well.  JT was on the window writers station and he was right in there with the rest of them, putting ideas on the window.  I'm going to try this again soon; I'd like to see more ideas next time.  I think they were so excited by the novelty of the activity that that's what they were thinking about more than the reflection question!

Earlier last week I also had vocabulary words with definitions all around the room (I had each student stick one word and definition anywhere they wanted in the room).  They had to gather these in order to complete a crossword for The Outsiders.  Again, JT was actively participating!  The other student I'm keeping my eye on, JM, did not participate.  He sat and did nothing.  Hmmmmm....

I have videos of these activities that I will post as soon as I've got the technology issue figured out.

P.S.

We need to find a way to put videos on our blog.  Our computers won't play the videos after we've uploaded them...

Small improvements...

So, usually JT shows disinterest in what we're doing in class.  He will sit and stare at his work, but not do it.  He will complain that he doesn't know any of the answers or he doesn't understand.  A couple of days ago, I posted some notes around the room and had my class moving around to find them and write them down.  JT was very engaged in this process.  He was working the entire time.  Even when it was time to take those notes to their desks and copy them onto post-its (to eventually put them in order of the events that take place in the circulatory system), he kept working.

In addition to that, yesterday he was in at lunch to complete some missing tasks.  He actually came and ask me if he had written enough!  Normally, he would just try to submit something unfinished because he doesn't want to put any more effort into it.

Today, the class did mini skits to act out certain events from our novel and he participated without a single complaint!

Just checking...

Just checking to see if my blog is working!  Last week I recorded the students' cell projects (models and posters).  I mentioned my top student and my students at-risk and then I filmed all of the projects in between.  At the moment, I'm having a super hard time getting them to bring back their permission forms, so I can't record them yet.